New York Newsday recently published a keen article, questioning why so many networks emulate the success of other shows when crafting their new schedules.

Don’t they know that originality always wins out?

With that in mind, the newspaper praises Pushing Daisies. There certainly isn’t anything else like it on TV. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The fall’s best pilot and most promising concept is, like Heroes, an invention all its own. ABC’s Wednesday delight Pushing Daisies combines fairy-tale whimsy and Technicolor splendiferousness with English-accented narration (from Jim Dale) and all-American zest from an eccentric cast of characters.

It’s so jauntily good-natured in its telling of a boy who grows into a man who can revive the dead with one touch - or kill them again with two - that you’re not only willing but eager to swallow its absurdities.

“I suppose dying’s as good as any an excuse to start living,” says the boy’s onetime childhood crush, after being resurrected but forbidden to touch her rescuer. That reward-seeking magic man has just as enchanting a way with resisting her advances: “I’m sort of exhausted from chasing your coffin.”

Pushing Daisies looks a lot like Heroes in another respect: Its wondrous young stars - stage-acclaimed Lee Pace (Soldier’s Girl, Wonderfalls) and British actress Anna Friel (Rogue Trader) - arrive in the series little-known but crisply talented and primed for greater fame.

Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth (”Wicked”) co-stars as a waitress.

Subway riders in New York City would have a difficult time missing this ad for Pushing Daisies.

If the show fails, it certainly won’t be for a lack of advertising effort on ABC’s part…

Photo courtesy of Thepiemaker.com.

What are the cool kids going to be watching this fall?

According to research by OTX, the Online Testing Exchange, the two shows that 13-17 year olds are most aware of and looking forward to are The CW’s Gossip Girl - and ABC’s Pushing Daisies.

The findings come from OTX’s Teen Topix survey, completeed in conjunction with the eCrush social networking site for youngsters. About 750 teens across the country were surveyed about their TV viewing behavior and preferences during the week of August 6.

Bruce Friend, president of media and entertainment insights at OTX, said some people may be surprised by the survey’s finding that when it comes to learning about TV shows, teens said on-air promotions and other ads are their source of information.

“For all of the hype surrounding blogs and video-sharing sites, it’s important for networks and marketers to understand that a majority of teenagers still get information about new programming from TV ads and promos,” Friend said.

With teens, he added, word of mouth comes in much higher as a source of information than with older viewers. That word of mouth can come through direct conversation or via technologies as diverse as instant messaging and cell phones.

“Networks should know there are a lot of different ways to reach the teen market,” Friend said.

One promotional strategy that showed up high on the list was cinema marketing, a strategy Pushing Daisies has utilized in its promotional campaign.

“That didn’t exist 25 years ago for TV shows,” Friend said, adding that wow when he goes to the movies, he sees promos for four or five network shows at cinemas in the AMC, Regal or other major chains.

Not every article out there has been complimentary of Pushing Daisies. To wit, Kim Masters of Slate.com wrote an interesting article about the show going over budget.

In it, she reports that director Barry Sonnenfeld (pictured) has been punished for going over budget on the show’s premiere, specifically penning that his “role as director was curtailed.”

Sonnenfeld, however, contradicts this report. He said the following to TV Squad about the article and expensive rumors:

“You know, the writer of the piece hasn’t written a lot about Hollywood, I think. Almost every show after the pilot is over-budget, whether it’s Bionic Woman, Chuck, last year’s Ugly Betty… I suspect they’re all over-budget.”

He continued:

“My role is to make the best shows possible, to get our show on ABC and get as much good press and to make the best shows possible. The article… and I called Kim about it… it had a lot of misinformation…”

Pushing Daisies Creator Bryan Fuller confirms this account, stating that Sonnenfeld will most certainly be directing future episodes and that budget problems don’t exist.

“The reason why I didn’t direct more episodes is that the schedule got changed; I was taking my daughter to boarding school. Truly, what I told Kim when she first called me was… truly, this is a non-story. And there’s not a show out there that isn’t over-budget after the pilot,” Sonnenfeld said.

Don’t just take our word for it.

The folks at AOL TV have named Pushing Daisies the best new show of the season. Check it out:

Count The Chicago Sun-Times among the numerous publications singing the praises of Pushing Daisies. Here’s part of the article from that newspaper…

When Ned was a boy, he ran with his dog in a field that looked for all the world like a painting of three colors: blue-blue sky, yellow-yellow daisies and green-green grass. It was Utopia.

Curious to Ned, he developed out of nowhere a rare gift/curse. If he touched dead creatures once - his mom, his dog, a fly - they’d spring back to life. If he touched them a second time, they’d die again forever.

Pushing Daisies follows Ned as an adult piemaker, along with Chuck (a woman who’s the love of his life), plus their detective partner Emerson. They find corpses, Ned resurrects them to find out who killed them, then he kills them again.

That is the literal breakdown of Pushing Daisies. But the magic of this procedural, romantic fairy tale is in the brush strokes, not the frame.

In Hollywood-speak, it seems like Amelie meets Tim Burton, although director Barry Sonnenfeld, who is responsible for the tone, bristles gently when people say this since, well, he’s Barry Sonnenfeld.

Many scenes look sumptuously saturated in colors. Some shots are composed like postmodern and surreal pictures. Pushing Daisies debuts October 3, but it’s already garnering better buzz from critics than any other new show this fall.

It works on its most important level, as a twisting tale about lovable goofballs, told with lovely images and crisp dialogue.

When Ned (Lee Pace) sees his childhood crush Chuck (Anna Friel) for the first time in years, he awakens her from death and falls in love with her all over again.

“I guess dying is as good an excuse as any to start living,” Chuck says.

But because his second caress would kill her, Ned and Chuck may never kiss or touch each other again. Their sober-eyed partner Emerson (Chi McBride) views their love as tragic and as a bit of a business encumbrance.

Follow our link to read the full article on this ABC show.

Pushing Daisies may be easier to watch than it is to describe.

In a medium that thrives on the cut-and-dried, the new ABC fall series is part romantic fantasy, part comedy and partly a whimsical take on crime-solving.

And it concerns itself with death, or rather, undeath: Its hero, Ned (Lee Pace) — a pie-shop owner who can bring the dead back to life with a touch of his finger — helps a detective solve murder cases by interviewing the victims. One of them, it turns out, is his childhood sweetheart, but their love must remain unrequited. If he kisses or even touches her again, she’ll die for good.

“I always feel so stupid, like I’m not doing the show justice, when you try to say, ‘I play Ned, who can touch dead people and bring them back to life, but if I touch them a second time, then they die. And if I keep them alive for more than a minute, then someone else will die,’” says Pace. “It makes it sound like CSI with a twist. It’s a really tricky one to describe.”

Therefore, ABC would just as soon not bother.

“Certain people are going to tap into the procedural (murder story) and love that, other people are going to get swept away in the romance, some people will like the magical realism elements or the comedy of it, and hopefully some people will love it all,” ABC Entertainment chief Stephen McPherson says.

Due Wednesdays at 8 ET/PT starting Oct. 3, this ABC comic drama is a visually stunning fairy tale: colorful, life-affirming and dripping with cinematic flourishes, courtesy of creator Bryan Fuller and director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black).

In a new season full of more shows about cops, lawyers and sexy doctors, Daisies is a genre-busting standout, already embraced by many critics as the best of the freshman crop, but labeled by just as many as a hard sell.

Marketing the show to viewers is “definitely a challenge,” says the network’s promo chief, Mike Benson, “but for us, it’s really about selling the magical romance of the show. We’re really trying to sell an overall feeling rather than trying to make them understand exactly what it’s about.”

Continue reading this article …

That Pushing Daisies marketing campaign must be working.

So far, the pilot that’s been screened by critics is receiving rave reviews. Here’s a sampling:

• TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello claimed that “ABC has found its next Lost!”
• Variety touted Pushing Daisies as”"the fall show with the most spring buzz.”
• New York Magazine also delivered praise, calling it “funny, imaginative and smart,” while claiming it “boasts Gilmore Girls-speed wit.”

We’re certainly sold! We can’t wait for the Pushing Daisies premiere on Wednesday, October 3 at 8 p.m.

ABC is throwing its marketing weight behind Pushing Daisies.

The push began with spots for the new dramedy running in movie theaters throughout the summer. From there came a handful of public screenings, including a well-received look at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Next up? A screening at the New York Television Festival on September. 8. There have also been the more traditional on-air radio ads, TV promotions billboards nationwide. Heck, there are even glossy pop-up paper daisies waiting to spring into promotion in various magazines.

The most interesting marketing strategy, however, is handing out to the general public thousands of daisies with tags attached promoting the show.

Creator and executive producer Bryan Fuller - whose credits include Heroes and Wonderfals - said he is thrilled with the marketing so far.

“Heroes got a great marketing push from NBC and that was a great experience, to have people be aware of it, Fuller said. “With Wonderfalls, friends said, ‘Hey, when is the show coming on?’ I said, ‘It was canceled a month ago.’

We doubt anyone will have that same question for Pushing Daisies, which premieres October 3.